The Greatest of All Time (Avengers: Endgame)

Avengers: Endgame Review

If someone had told me back in 2008 that the movie Iron Man was going to start something unheard of, I’d call them crazy. A lot of us would have. A shared universe of superheroes and interconnected stories had worked in comic books. It had even done well in cartoons with the DC and Marvel Animated Universes of the 90s and 2000s. But movies? No one had tried it; people may have thought it was impossible.

Yet Marvel did it; Iron Man was only the start of a larger universe. Eleven years and twenty-two movies (and several shows) later, the MCU rules pop culture. Now the first chapter to this incredible universe comes to a head in Avengers: Endgame, which has already broken the global box office record.

I told you guys in my last post about how I saw the first Avengers movie with my dad opening weekend. Now, I am proud to say that I got to do the same thing for Avengers: Endgame on Friday, April 26th, 2019. After giving myself a day to process everything, I want to give you guys my review for the movie everyone’s talking about. There will be some mild spoilers here, but nothing that will ruin the plot.

The film starts three weeks after the events of Infinity War, and the universe is working to pick up the pieces. Tony and Nebula get stranded in space like we see in the trailer, but thanks to Captain Marvel, they get rescued and get home. While Tony recuperates, everyone else goes after Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet. To their horror, though, they find that the Stones are gone. Thanos destroyed them so that a) the Decimation couldn’t be undone, and b) he wouldn’t go mad with power with them. So it looks like the Avenger have lost in every sense.

Time passes, and everyone deals with the effects in their own way, some better than others. Thor took it the worst, though; here’s an out-of-context photo that should give you a hint what’s happened to him:

Use your imagination for the rest. Then suddenly, Scott Lang comes back from the Quantum Realm. He had been trapped in there since the Pyms got dusted. The thing is, while it’s been years for others, it was only a few hours for him. Time doesn’t work the same in the Quantum Realm. Piggy backing off that discovery, the Avengers form a plan to undo Thanos’ actions. Using the Quantum Realm, they will travel back to various moments in the past, grab the Infinity Stones from then, and use them in the present to bring back everyone.

So I guess How it Should Have Ended got it partially right with the time travel part. As for me, what did I think about it? I think that it was a very convoluted plan, and if it sounds like Back to the Future, you’re not alone. Tony Stark even calls everyone out by saying “your plan is Back to the Future?” It was a crazy plan, and by all means, it shouldn’t work. To be honest, though, this wasn’t the first time Marvel’s used time travel; it’s happened in the comics.

I don’t want to give away what happens here, but the second part’s basically revisiting past moments from the movies and stealing the stones. I have to agree with Andy Epsilantis from Pop Culture Uncovered on this one: it was fun, but made for a weak story. It did give us some pretty good moments, though. A few of the characters were even able to get some closure to certain events in their past.

Letting the characters see themselves in the past, though, was pretty fun. For example, remember the scene at the start of Guardians where Quill’s singing to “Come and get your Love”? To everyone else, he looks like a dork singing in an empty room, and it is hilarious. The time heist doesn’t go off without a hitch, though. Thanos learns what the heroes are doing, and becomes determined to keep his work from being undone.

While I admit that in Infinity War, Thanos’ goals, while misguided, were to help the universe. That made him relatable as a villain and even, in some way, respect him for actually winning. In Endgame, though, Thanos becomes a straight-up villain. He vows to destroy Earth for its inhabitants constant interference in his plans. Then he’ll remake the universe with himself as a god. That’s pretty evil! And while I did enjoy how complex Thanos was (and still is), having a straight-up evil goal helped watching the Avengers fight him feel great.

What did I think of how it ended? First, I’m just going to come out and say it: THERE IS NO MID OR POST-CREDITS SCENE! The end credits are still epic, but don’t waste your time.

Second, while a three hour movie is pushing it for me, I walked away utterly satisfied. This film’s basically a love letter to what the MCU’s done and how far its come. It’s got humor, action, drama, genuine loss, and the geeky fan service. It is the perfect cap-off to this story that’s been building for eleven years. If it or any of the people involved in it don’t win an Oscar next year, I will be disappointed. Third, and finally, I like how this movie has Stan Lee’s final cameo before his passing. Best part is that you won’t even realize it’s him at first glance. Having one of the men who made Marvel appear in the final chapter to one of its biggest stories gives it a form of closure.

In short, I thought that this movie was the best, and not just because of nostalgia bait. I highly recommend that you go see it in theaters while you can.